TheSmithViewpoint: Why not a contest of ideas?

Why not a contest of ideas?

Why can there not be more public debates among key politicians? Or, at the very least, head-to-head public discussions between, say, those in the White House and those on Capitol Hill.

Right now America has more of a he said-she said democratic practice where someone can make a statement through some media outlet and, yet, there is no rebuttal to his or her statement.

For instance, ABC News reported today that, aboard the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk, Vice-President Dick Cheney told U.S. soldiers that Americans "will not support a policy of retreat." That statement, however, is completely false. A majority of Americans do support some sort of withdrawal of troops from Iraq within some sort of time frame.

Many statements are made by politicians when there is no one there who can respond to or refute it. Yet, shouldn't the debate of ideas part of a democratic society, not to mention the foremost of democratic societies?

Right now our democratic debates are limited to a few between candidates during presidential campaigns. I do not consider the one-by-one ramblings of representatives and senators in Congress to be proper debates. A debate is a contest, a competition of opposing ideas.

The ideas and ideals of the American people as conveyed through its politicians are expressed far apart from each other -- a policy of us and them -- because they are not made to come together in a public arena.

How can we be a nation united when we are a nation separated by our own ideas? At this moment in our nation's history we are categorized as Democrats or Republicans, liberals or conservatives. A time for us to come together as one nation is long overdue.

Labels: Cheney, debate, democracy, Democrats, foreign policy, politicians, politics, presidential campaign, public discussion, Republicans